Dragonball Z: The Borg Saga
by Demon-Fighter Ash
Summary: CHAPTER IS NOW UP! Star Trek/DBZ crossover: Three years after the Cell Games, the Z-fighters discover that a mysterious new enemy has been drawn to Earth, and that a war for the fate of the whole Dragonball universe has begun...
1. Author's Notes

Disclaimer:  
  
All characters presented here belong to Akira Toriyama and Toei Studios. The story is based in part on characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, created by Gene Roddenberry and belonging to Paramount Studios. This fan-fiction explores a potential crossover scenario between the DBZ and Star Trek storylines and is not written for profit.  
  
So please don't sue me. :)  
  
This story can be posted freely on any site so long as prior notification is sent to the author, credit is given to the author, this disclaimer is posted with the story, and it is not used for profit.  
  
It may not be sold in any way.  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
The idea for this story came from a topic on the Gamefaqs message boards more than a year ago, when topics about "who could beat the Z-fighters" had reached their peak. It occured to me that the Borg would be interesting fight, simply because they're almost the exact opposite of the Z-fighters in every way. Instead of a small group of super-powered individuals with insanely powerful energy attacks, they're a seemingly endless swarm of relatively weak drones, against whom insanely powerful energy attacks are mostly useless.  
  
It becomes a matter of raw destructive power versus an astronomically vast army, of human ingenuity against constant cybernetic and technological adaptation...  
  
Anyway, some notes about the setting. This is more or less an "alternate" DBZ saga that takes place a little less than three years after the Cell Saga. There's only one crucial difference: due to some slightly different circumstances, Goku is now alive and well--how that happened is explained in the story.  
  
This is a story about the Z-fighters and the DBZ world fighting against the Borg; as such, there are no other Star Trek crossovers, such as the Federation, or any Trek characters or ships. For all practical purposes, this story simply assumes that a version of the Borg also exists in the DBZ world.  
  
Readers will probably notice that some of the DBZ terms are from the Funimation dub, and some are the original Japanese names. There's no real pattern to it, besides which name I think sounds the best. For example, I'll mostly stick to the dub for names like "spirit bomb," "instant transmission," and "ascended saiyan," because even if they're not the exact translations, they convey the meaning pretty well and they sound good enough.  
  
A few terms, like "energy," "tri-beam," and "destructo-disk," on the other hand, are referred to by their Japanese names, "ki," "shin kikiho" and "kienzen." At any rate, the Japanese names are so few and far between that I think anyone who's watched DBZ can keep up.  
  
Likewise, Star Trek fans will notice that this is mostly the "Next Generation" Borg, mainly because I despise how Voyager changed them. Hence, there's no Borg Queen, no unamatrix facilities or transwarp hubs. Instead, this is the Borg from the TNG episodes "Q-Who" and "Best of Both Worlds," a swarm of constantly-evolving collective beings possessing one hive-mind. Likewise, the Borg ships in this story are the gigantic cube-shaped monstrosities seen in those episodes, rather than the smaller ships seen in Voyager.  
  
There is one Borg ability that I've kept from the movie "First Contact," but if you've never seen that movie, then I'll let you find out exactly what that ability is for yourself... :P  
  
Those are the rules. Now, let the mother of all crossover battles begin... :) 


	2. Table of Contents

Dragonball Z: The Borg Saga  
an original fan-fiction by Demon-Fighter Ash  
based on characters created by Akira Toriyama  
based on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek"  
  
Table of Contents  
  
Prologue: The Harvester of Worlds  
  
Part 1: Arrival  
  
Chapter 1: Out of the Shadows  
Chapter 2: Encounter at Capsule Corporation  
Chapter 3: Battle for the South Capitol  
Chapter 4: A Moment's Peace  
  
Part 2: Infection  
  
Part 3: Devasation  
  
Part 4: Rebirth 


	3. Prologue: The Harvester of Worlds

Dragonball Z: The Borg Saga  
an original fan-fiction by Demon-Fighter Ash  
based on characters created by Akira Toriyama  
based on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek"  
  
Prologue: The Harvester of Worlds  
  
They swam through an infinite abyss of stars and dust, invisible beams sweeping through each passing star-system, searching each planet as they rushed silently onward. They had no destination, no specific purpose aside from the single purpose that stretched across the whole galaxy, the purpose that had defined their existence for thousands of centuries--to bring order to chaos, to bring perfection to the imperfect authority-driven societies languishing in the remote corners of the universe, and to finally become one with the heavens themselves.  
  
Countless civilizations had become one with them over the millenia, and within their single mind lay the knowledge and experiences of hundreds of billions of minds, the memories and lifetimes of millions of generations. Yet they had no name for themselves. They had no need for a name, for they had no peers, nobody who existed apart from them--even those primitive cultures who still lay outside the hive would someday become one with them. They were the living will of existence itself, the final inevitable existence of all species, the ultimate destiny of all life throughout the universe.  
  
Other species didn't understand this, however, and so the outsiders had given them many names throughout the eons. The Destroyers, the Devourers, the Reapers, the Harvesters of Worlds, and many more names, all of them based on the fear and misunderstandings of cultures too primitive and archaic in structure to understand or appreciate their benevolence, to understand the perfection that they sought to bring to the galaxy.  
  
Several hundred years ago they had encountered and, with some difficulty, assimilated a race of beings called the El-Aurians, and the name that the El-Aurians gave to them had spread throughout that part of the galaxy, giving them a common name for the first time in centuries: the Borg. Even that was simply one of many names, but it had proven convenient, for many races and species knew of it. So, for now, in this part of the universe, they were known to outsiders simply by the El-Aurian name, "the Borg."  
  
A single cube-shaped ship swept through the darkness, the minds of the countless thousands of Borg aboard it invisibly linked to the billions of minds of countless other cubes just like it, all of them part of the single will of the collective. The cube's sides stretched dozens of miles along each side and outsiders often mistook them for moons before realizing the truth. The black ship didn't have a metal hull covering it like most spaceships; its force-fields took care of that.  
  
Instead, the cube seemed to be woven from wires and metal beams, a massive block of pure naked technology in its most essential form. The Borg had no concept of aesthetics, nor any need for them. The cube's shape and structure symbolized the ideology of the Borg far better than any of the archaic flags and national symbols of the lesser races--pure function, pure efficiency and economy, the purpose alone dictating its design, with no emotional or sentimental influences corrupting the efficiency of the ship's structure...  
  
But that sparsity of design had not been decided upon at any shipyard or orbital station, nor had the cube-shaped vessels ever been drawn on a blueprint. The gigantic ships had simply evolved over the centuries, the cybernetic hordes known as the Borg assimilating every ship, colony and space-station that they happened upon into their own ship, layer upon layer of fused alien technology converted into a single amalgamated cube, the same way a wasp's nest arises from the random peacemeal gatherings of all the workers, with no deliberate intent or design.  
  
When a cube finally grew too large for its drones to maintain, or when they simply needed no more raw material to repair it, they began to instead convert other ships into cubes--within the heart of every Borg cube, buried deep beneath the metal catwalks and dim flickering hallways filled with silent cybernetic drones, lay an ancient, forgotten ship or space-station, the seed that had, countless eons ago, been infected and changed by another Borg cube, that had, after decades of engulfing every piece of technology in its path, sprouted into the colossal cubes that now scoured the galaxy for still more alien ships and worlds to devour.  
  
Some races had considered the Borg a kind of interstellar cancer, infecting one world after another, annihilating entire civilizations and changing them all into Borg drones and cubes, but those races had long ago become one with the Borg, and they had finally come to understand the Borg's true purpose--to bring perfection to a universe of chaos, to bring enlightenment to all species, throughout the galaxy...  
  
The black cube glided through the emptiness of interstellar space, the faint pulsing hum of its engines and field-generators silent within the soundless vacuum. Thousands of Borg drones stood within its maze of corridors, each pair of drones sharing an alcove filled with flickering display screens and twisting hoses and wires. Metal cables and rods linked the back of each cyborg's head to the walls of the alcoves and, through this network of flesh and circuit, the Borg communed with their ship, seeing every sensor reading as if through their own eyes, their thoughts guiding the cube as their minds scoured the stars for some hint of new worlds, new technology...  
  
New energy-signature detected  
Apparent magnitude: -4.6  
Red-shift factor: 312  
Estimated distance: 8600 light-years  
Spectroscopic composition: biogenic  
  
The Borg sensed something strange, a flicker of energy from somewhere far beyond the center of the galaxy, all the way on the other side. They knew of only a few phenomena whose energy could be detected so far away: supernova, particle fountains, exposed singularities, all natural phenomena that they had long since studied and grown bored with. None of those things, however, had biogenic energy signatures, the uniquely complex fluctuations that marked the energy of a living being. The Borg quickly focused the cube's sensors on the mysterious energy...  
  
Energy analysis complete  
Luminosity: 76312  
Visual Radius: 0.8 km  
  
Energy-signature's location confirmed  
Quadrant coordinates: Alpha-298.63  
System coordinates: G4 star, 3rd planet  
Planetary status: Stable orbit and infrastructure  
  
A biogenic form of energy powerful enough to destroy a star-system, and yet so tightly focused that it hadn't even destroyed the planet from which it seemed to eminate. They might have mistaken it for a supernova if the energy hadn't been clearly organic in origin, and now, as they studied it more carefully, they saw that the energy came from a small life-supporting rocky planet--and that the planet showed no signs of stress, no hint of ripping itself apart against the vast power being unleashed across its surface.  
  
The Borg ran a system-check on the cube's sensors--no malfunctions. The energy was real.  
  
Subspace network established  
123,876 cubes connected  
0.4% maximum network capability  
New information disseminating...  
  
The whole galaxy pulsed with the instantanious subspace transmissions and signals of the cubes all communicating at once, the hive-mind quickly buzzing with excitement. The Borg hadn't encountered anything new in centuries; advanced technology and new planets, but no real mysteries. The single mind of the Borg pondered the vast energy pouring out of that distant corner of the galaxy, powerful enough to annihilate a whole star-system, and yet somehow bearing the unmistakable marks of a living, organic being. Some living entity had given off all this energy...and the Borg had never encountered anything like that.  
  
They began searching through all the different frequencies and subspace-layers around the distant planet, trying to uncover clues about the mysterious energy. The blast of biogenic energy nearly drowned out every other transmission, but the Borg finally discovered a faint electromagnetic transmission coming from the planet, an encoded signal that their network of cybernetic minds quickly deciphered...  
  
"I'm reporting live from a site three miles south of the Cell Games, where you can see a huge glowing ball on the horizon...our on-site cameras are still down, and the government has issued an advisory against venturing any closer to the actual tournament ring..."  
  
"Earthquakes continue to rock the major cities and tidal waves have battered much of the coastal region...the geological disturbances seem to be originating from the Cell Games, where blasts of light so strong that they've illuminated the entire hemisphere have been reported..."  
  
"Here in downtown South City, most people seem to have given up on evacuation and are instead resigning themselves to what virtually everyone believe is the end of the world..."  
  
Primitive planetary communication networks, the Borg quickly realized, and they analyzed the information once more. A level of energy normally reserved for stellar collapse being emitted by living beings on an inhabited planet with relatively primitive technology...a biogenic energy that, though easily strong enough to destroy an entire star-system, seemed to be only barely disturbing the planet emitting it...  
  
The entire process, from the first glimpse of the energy-burst to the final analysis and decision, took less than a second, and the Borg cube suddenly changed its course. The ship had no mast and so it had no need to turn around; it simply shot away from its original course at a different angle without even slowing down. The cube had found a new destination, a new mystery to solve...and a new world to devour... 


	4. Part 1: Arrival, Chapter 1: Out of the S...

Dragonball Z: The Borg Saga  
an original fan-fiction by Demon-Fighter Ash  
based on characters created by Akira Toriyama  
based on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek"  
  
Part 1: Arrival  
  
Chapter 1: Out of the Shadows  
  
Vegeta sprinted over the metal floor and leaped into the air with a harsh scream, the soles of his boots slamming against the curved wall; he kicked himself back into the air and twisted around, hovering silently for a moment as he scanned the chamber for the mounted laser-turrets. His eyes burned, his thin black hair soaked with sweat, and he squinted his dark eyes, clearing away the drops of perspiration and the slight trickle of warm blood running down his brow. Nothing could've hoped to match his strength, and even a blast of ki strong enough to destroy the Earth would've posed little more challenge than a housefly for him. But the laser's needle-thin beams, microscopic except for the red glow, had been focused tightly enough to cut through his own aura, and each of them flew at the speed of light, far faster than he could possibly dodge. At least, far faster than he could dodge without becoming a super-saiyan.  
  
Bulma didn't even think he could dodge them as a super-saiyan; she'd said something about the laws of relativity and the light-speed limit, but none of that mattered to him. He would prove her laws and theories wrong, he would transcend the bounds of science itself and break all the limits it tried to impose on him. His heart still burned with rage at the thought of his last real battle, almost three years ago. Cell had barely even noticed his attacks, the monster's only focus had been the son of Kakkarot. A mere child, Vegeta fumed silently, who had surpassed him, just as the brat's father had surpassed him. There was a time when he would've killed them both for such impertinance, but not anymore. He wanted them to live, so they could someday bow before Vegeta, and acknowledge him as their rightful prince...  
  
Vegeta's eyes suddenly widened in surprise as one of the steel panels on the opposite wall slid open and another platinum-white laser gun jutted out of the darkness, the red dot of the tracer beam hitting him in the chest. He jerked sideways just as the laser fired and the crimson beam sliced through his left shoulder, leaving a tiny pinpoint tunnel cut right through the muscle and bone, the laser emerging from the back of his black training suit to bounce off the reflective wall behind him. He screamed in pain, bobbing up and down slightly in the air, and quickly stretched out his right hand; a white orb of ki flew forward and the laser-turret exploded into a shimmering fireball. He wrenched around and unleashed a quick strafing burst of ki-attacks along the wall as three more box-like turrets popped out, all three of them instantly dissolving beneath the blinding white blasts, leaving gaping pits and cracks in the metal wall.  
  
"Oh Vegeeeetaaaa!"  
  
The wide round chamber suddenly spun around Vegeta and he felt blood rushing into his head. The blanket of invisible ki that, under the pressure of 500 times Earth's gravity, had barely held him off the ground now catapulted him into the ceiling. He slammed headfirst into the reinforced ceiling and tumbled back onto the ground, his concentration broken by the impact, his head ringing as he slowly hoisted himself back onto his feet. The artificial gravity of the training room had been turned off and he glanced around for the intruder; he snarled under his breath as he finally saw her, a ditzy blonde-haired woman gripping a silver platter filled with tea-cups and smiling idiotically at him from the open doorway.  
  
Bulma had left the facility earlier that afternoon for some camping trip, and she'd even taken their son with her, to visit Kakkarot's wife and younger child while she was gone. But, of course, also getting rid of both her parents for the week was too much to hope for...  
  
"How is your training going," she prattled quickly as he simply glared at her, "I was taking some tea to your father, and I just know how worked up you get, so why don't you join us for a break?"  
  
His clenched fingers dug into his white gloves and Vegeta stared at her with a blind rage. Ever since the ridiculous ceremony Bulma had insisted on having--some absurd ritual meant to prove to the world feelings that he thought should've been kept private--her parents had insisted on pretending that they were now also his parents, due to some obscure Earth role that Bulma and her parents referred to as "in-laws."  
  
On the saiyan homeworld, there would have been no greater honor for his father, the king of the planet Vegeta, than to be killed by his own son in a fight, but on Earth children kept their parents alive even to the point of infirmity. It seemed pointless to him to keep feeble old people alive, to let them wither away when they could have been killed at their peak, preserving their honor and the memory of their strength even while proving the superiority of the next generation. But Bulma and the other humans felt differently, and he had promised her that, no matter how alien it seemed, he would try to adjust...  
  
"Fine," he hissed after taking a deep breath, "I will accept your offer."  
  
Vegeta skulked through the archway and paced quickly along the small path running beside the frog pond. A small green red-eyed frog with short round antenna gave a startled yelp and leaped off its lily-pad into the water at the sight of Vegeta's scowling face, and the saiyan warrior glided past the pond and through another doorway into the large darkened, windowless computer-room, where Doctor Briefs stood before a huge wall filled with a grid of flickering television screens and computer monitors, scribbling notes down on a clipboard as his black cat clung to his shoulders and gave Vegeta and Mrs. Briefs a wide-eyed stare.  
  
"I brought your teeeeaaa," Bulma's mother called out in a sing-song melody that seemed to rattle Vegeta's spine, "and just look who came out of his room to join us!"  
  
"Oh, hello Vegeta," Doctor Briefs replied with a quick glance over his shoulder, his thoughtful eyes blinking beneath his thick glasses, then looked back at the blurred black-and-white images on most of the screens, "you might want to take a look at this. It's astounding, it'll probably revolutionize the whole field of astronomy. I never would have even guessed it, at least not until..."  
  
"What is it," Vegeta asked sharply, wanting to get this rambling conversation over with.  
  
"It's a tenth planet," the doctor nodded to himself, his mumbled reply seeming to answer Vegeta's question simply by accident, "somewhat small, probably smaller than our moon--at least, our old moon anyway, but still pretty big. And it's actually getting closer as we speak..."  
  
"What," Vegeta gasped to himself as he suddenly felt something. He stared intently at the screen, making out little more than a small white blur against the blackness of space, but he definitely felt a living presence out there, a life-force with a ki unlike anything he'd sensed before...  
  
"In fact," Doctor Briefs jotted down a few quick diagrams on his clipboard and nodded decisively, "its orbit is carrying it in a straight line toward Earth, and it's moving with incredible speed. Comparing the pictures that the probes sent back through tachyon-transmissions with the telescopes on Earth, it actually looks like it's moving near the speed of light itself. It's already crossed Pluto's orbit, and in just a few more hours it'll probably reach Earth. This is an astounding astronomical discovery, unlike anything..."  
  
"Is it alive," Vegeta asked softly, and then quickly raised his voice, "tell me, is it inhabited?!"  
  
"I can't tell," Bulma's father shrugged as the cat mewed nervously at the screen, "but the images are getting clearer every moment and I don't think it's a natural planet. The reflection of the sunlight on its surface is all wrong for a sphere. I think it's more like some kind of giant box."  
  
Vegeta silently glared between the doctor and his wife, then back up at the wall of screens, at the dark blurry image now almost filling the computer monitors. Whatever this thing was, it definitely wasn't a planet, and he smirked slightly to himself; whatever it was that he sensed from the object, whatever it was that seemed to even make the cat uneasy, it might finally pose a worthy challenge...  
  
* * *  
  
The drooping fronds of the palm-tree rustled back and forth in the warm tropical breeze and a flock of seagulls scattered across the blue-white sky. The small island and simple pink house began to tremble, ripples spreading out from the beaches into the deeper ocean and a low rumbling sound rising from the back of the house to fill the otherwise-silent air. 18 stood on the beach, her spread feet planted on the ground and her palms cupped loosely over each other behind her back, both her arms stretched over her right side. She stared at the horizon through narrowed ice-blue eyes, her short blonde hair rising and falling in waves of invisible ki, and then she closed her eyes tight...  
  
"Kammmeeee..."  
  
The palm-tree's trunk began to shudder, waving left and right like a reed swept in a windstorm, and a single coconut tumbled to the ground, then began bouncing slightly within the wave of energy rippling steadily outward from the beautiful young android...  
  
"...hammmmeeee..."  
  
The waves grew higher, crashing outward from the shallow waters around the island into the ocean, white foam churning and spinning into frothing whirlpools as the ripples spreading out from the island grew into towering crests and billowing, heaving waves...  
  
"...HAAA!!!"  
  
She threw her hands forward, fingers spread and wrists pressed together, and a blue-white orb of flickering ki erupted from her open palms. The ball of energy hummed and swelled within her clasped hands for a second and then lashed outward in a huge stream of energy so bright that even the sunlight semed to fade into night around it. It swept away from the island, cleaving the ocean itself into a canyon of solid water, and finally vanised into the horizon. The parted sea seemed to hang suspended above exposed ocean floor for an instant, and then crashed back down with a single ear-piercing roar, as the young woman gave a deep exhausted sigh and looked back over her shoulder.  
  
"How," she panted, bent forward with her hands gripping her denim-clad knees, sweat tracing down the fine strands of her hair and rolling along her cheeks, "how was that?"  
  
"Not bad," a cracked rapsy voice answered, and she glanced around at Master Roshi, sitting with his legs crossed beneath him beneath the palm-tree, his eyes hidden beneath his cheap red sunglasses, "but that kamehameha was a little too powerful for the amount of ki you were using."  
  
"I know," she sighed, looking back to the still-thrashing waves, "the machines take over whenever I try to gather any real ki. It's hard to keep them from amplifying my attacks."  
  
"But you know those devices will only limit you," Roshi answered as he stood up and hobbled across the beach on his walking stick, "they can't ever be improved, and if you rely on them, you'll never become any stronger than you were the day Gero switched them on."  
  
"I know that," she replied irritably, with an annoyed sideways glance over her shoulder at the squat old man, "that's why I asked you and Krillin to start teaching me how to use my natural ki instead of the implants. Now are you going to help, or just keep repeating the obvious?"  
  
"I was just being helpful," Roshi retorted, and then stepped behind the young android, grabbing both her wrists and pulling them over her right side, "alright, now listen up! I noticed that you're using your wrists instead of the base of your palms. That drains some of the energy from the wave, and it's probably why all those gears and machines in you keep trying to kick in to pick up the slack."  
  
"Alright," she nodded, pressing her hands closer together and closing her eyes tight once more, then she suddenly opened her eyes wide. She looked down to find Roshi's scrawny hands clutching her breasts through the thick black fabric of her shirt, and she quickly twisted her head around, her cold blue eyes narrowing in silent rage as the dirty old man gave a short snicker of perverse delight.  
  
The island suddenly rang with a quick series of high-pitched yelps and screams, the shouts rising into a single wheezing shriek of agony. Roshi suddenly flew through the air and slammed against the side of the house, his arms and legs spread out like a snow-angel and his broken glasses dangling from one ear as he fell onto his back. He gazed dizzily up at the sky, the leering smile still plastered on his face despite the bruises and black eye.  
  
"I was only," he cackled, lying motionless on the beach, "I was only checking your implants..."  
  
"For your information, old man," 18 snarled back from further down the beach, having not moved one inch from where she'd stood during training, "THOSE are real!"  
  
He gave another lurid chuckle and then seemed to notice something in the sky above him, staring at the clear tropical sky above him with a confused tilt of his head. He stared a moment longer, and then finally spoke aloud as 18 walked silently up the beach, passing by his still-limp body on her way back to the house.  
  
"What is that," he murmered to himself, "there's something out there..."  
  
"The only thing you're seeing after a beating like that," 18 rolled her eyes skeptically, "are stars."  
  
"Heh, I'm used to those," he grinned, and then his smile dropped away into a perplexed frown once more as he lay on his back watching the sky, "no, this is something different. There's some sort of power out there, right at the very edge of the solar system. But it feels like it's getting closer..."  
  
"You mean aliens, " she asked him as she looked up at the cloudless blue expanse herself.  
  
"I'm not sure," he replied, "whatever it is, it's definitely not a namek's ki, or a saiyan, or a human, or even one of Frieza's kind. I've never felt any power quite like this one...  
  
"Whatever it is," Roshi said as he sat back upright, "I'm sure Goku can handle it..."  
  
* * *  
  
"This looks like a good place for our tents," Gohan remarked as he slid his backpack onto a small boulder and looked around at the campsite. They'd picked out a small clearing in the thick shadowy forest, along the mossy banks of a deep still river of clear shimmering water, and he watched as Bulma surveyed the grotto, dressed in her khaki camping outfit. Krillin and Goku emerged from the shadows of the forest a moment later and Bulma smiled at the sight of them, then yanked a small metal case out of her own backpack.  
  
"Ohhh no," she replied quickly as she yanked out a white plastic capsule from the case, "I've had enough of sleeping bags and campfires for one lifetime. THIS time we're camping in style!"  
  
She pressed a button on top of the cylindrical capsule and tossed it several feet away, into the middle of the clearing; the tiny capsule exploded into a thick choking cloud of smoke, and the dust quickly cleared to reveal a large white igloo-like cabin perched in the center of the grove, yellow electric lights streaming out the windows and the sounds of the television set and stereo-system within the capsule-house filling the forest.  
  
"Bulma," Krillin shook his head as he dropped his backpack down his shoulders, "that kinda defeats the whole purpose of roughing it out in the wild, doesn't it?"  
  
"You can still sleep out by the river if you want," she shrugged.  
  
"Are you kidding," Krillin quickly replied, "my favorite show comes on tonight!"  
  
Goku instantly slipped out of his own backpack and suddenly ran past the other three, sprinting to the water's edge with a happy cry. He leaped over the rocky bank and dived headfirst into the water, disappearing for a moment before suddenly emerging with a huge silver-scaled fish in his arms.  
  
"That takes care of dinner," he shouted joyfully to the group as he carried the flopping fish back to the bank, his spiky black hair dripping with water, "and boy am I starved!"  
  
"I'll get some firewood," Gohan volunteered as he tugged on the stuck latch of his backpack.  
  
"I'll help," Goku replied as he dropped the gigantic fish at the front door of the capsule-cabin, and he suddenly tilted his head, his dark eyes clouded in thought as he made his way to the small granite boulder that Gohan had set his backpack atop, "wow Gohan, you're getting really tall...you're almost taller than I am!"  
  
"Mom says it's a growth spurt," Gohan shrugged awkwardly.  
  
"Looks like you're reaching that special age," Bulma teased the young boy.  
  
"Hey Goku," Krillin asked with a sly squint of his eyes, "have you had that talk with Gohan yet?"  
  
"Oh yeah," Goku suddenly replied, "I almost forgot! Okay Gohan, this is important..."  
  
"Um," Gohan glanced around nervously as Goku looked him seriously in the eye, "that's okay dad, you don't have to explain it to me. I think I've read about most of it already..."  
  
"No, this is important," Goku answered, "you're probably going to notice a lot of girls treating you differently now that you're older, and there's one very important thing I want you to know."  
  
"What's that," Gohan asked uneasily.  
  
"If a girl ever asks you," Goku nodded, "if you want to get 'married,' it doesn't mean food."  
  
Bulma and Krillin both suddenly dropped flat onto their faces with embarrassment, and Gohan glanced sheepishly over at them from behind Goku's shoulder, then back at his father's face.  
  
"Anything else I should know?"  
  
"No, that's about it," he answered, not noticing Bulma and Krillin struggling to stand up behind him.  
  
"Man, it's hard to believe," Krillin shook her head, "that Gohan's almost the same age that we were when we started training with Master Roshi for the tournament..."  
  
"Really," Gohan asked eagarly, "you must have had all sorts of great adventures!"  
  
"We had a few," Goku smiled, "but none of them even came close to what you've accomplished. You've gone to Namek, become an ascended saiyan...you even beat Cell and saved the world!"  
  
"I guess," Gohan nodded modestly, "but when you died at the Cell Games and we thought you weren't coming back...I don't ever want to go through anything like that again!"  
  
"Oh yeah," Bulma answered as she sat down on a log near the two saiyans, "I almost forgot about that time when Goku thought he was doing the world a favor by not coming back. But then I reminded him that Pilaf would've found the dragonballs and taken over the world if it weren't for him..."  
  
"And that the Red Ribbon Army," Krillin joined in, "would've taken over if he hadn't been here..."  
  
"And that Frieza would've sent the saiyans to destroy the Earth if Goku hadn't been around to stop all of them," Bulma continued, counting out the times Goku had saved the world on her fingers.  
  
"And that," Gohan cheerfully interrupted as he finally yanked the backpack loose, a huge pile of thick schoolbooks tumbling onto the soft mossy banks of the stream, "even in the future timeline where you really were dead, the androids still ended up destroying everything..."  
  
"Alright, alright," Goku laughed, and then spoke quickly as he finished the story for them, "and then I realized that I was wrong, and so I let you wish me back. What can I say, staying dead seemed like a good idea at the time," and he grew a little bit more serious, "but I'm glad all of you talked me out of it. I can't imagine living in the afterlife and not being here to see Gohan grow up. And I probably wouldn't have even known about Goten..."  
  
A high-pitched electronic beep filled the air, then another beep, and then a third, as Goku and Gohan looked curiously around. Bulma's face suddenly lit with realization and she bent back over her backpack, digging through the endless piles of hair-brushes, make-up kits and clothes, until she finally yanked out a small silver-gray portable cell phone, the device shuddering with each beep.  
  
"It's just my cell phone," she called out, and then flipped it open and pressed it to her ear.  
  
"A house, a phone," Krillin muttered to Goku and Gohan under his breath, as Bulma began to talk on the phone, "you wonder why she even bothered to come out here..."  
  
"Are you sure," she said over the phone, and she suddenly lifted her right hand for the other three to stop talking, "dad, we just set up camp! Uh-huh...well, I'll have to drop Goku, Gohan and Krillin off and pick up Trunks first...you want me to bring them along? Well, what about Trunks?!"  
  
"Alright," she finally sighed, "see you in a little bit.  
  
"I guess we have to head back," she sighed as she switched the phone back off and turned to the other three campers, "let's pack up, my dad wants us to hurry back to Capsule Corporation."  
  
"Awww, what for," Goku pouted, "we just got here!"  
  
"I'm not sure," she replied as she stuck the portable phone back into her backpack and began to pull the huge bag onto her shoulders again, "he wants us to look at a spaceship he discovered, or something like that. Anyway, you don't mind if we stop by Capsule Corp before you go home, do you?"  
  
"No, that's fine," Krillin answered, and Goku and Gohan nodded as well.  
  
"All I can say," Bulma shook her head with exasperation as she tapped a few buttons on a panel beside the cabin's door, and the dome-shaped house responded by suddenly vanishing again to leave only a tiny capsule lying on the ground, "is that this had BETTER be good!"  
  
* * *  
  
The hovering island of the lookout floated silently in the turquoise-blue sky, ghostly wisps of white clouds gliding beneath it, the ethereal foam of a wide ocean of shimmering air drifting beneath the floating bowl-shaped palace. Four rows of green cone-shaped trees formed the edges of the vast white courtyard that stretched atop the island, in front of the golden-domed temple. Two green-skinned nameks stood in the center of the courtyard, one dressed in the long white robes of the planet's guardian, the other wearing a fluttering white cape and thick turban atop an otherwise dark suit, both their eyes closed.  
  
"Focus, Dende," Piccolo said, his eyes still closed, "open your mind and empty all of your own thoughts. You have to be absolutely calm, even the slightest distraction can cloud your vision."  
  
"I'm trying," the younger namek replied uncertainly, his eyes closed tight and his muscles straining, "I think I can feel something...yes, I've got it, I can hear them!"  
  
"Good," Piccolo nodded, still not opening his eyes, "but don't let your enthusiasm distract you, stay focused on their thoughts and feelings. Try to hear each one seperately."  
  
"There must be billions," Dende sighed, then closed his eyes tighter, focusing inward, "but I think I can sort them out. That group is Pepper City, that one's Satan City, there's Metro West..."  
  
"Now pull back from their individual thoughts," Piccolo continued, "and try to see the whole pattern of all their minds. The sum of all their feelings reflects the state of the planet itself. If you allow yourself to see all of their minds at once, you can sense the Earth and all its people, along with anything that doesn't belong."  
  
"I can sense it," Dende replied calmly, trying to control his enthusiasm, "all of them together, one world and one people," the young namek smiled softly, "and they seem to be fine."  
  
"You've done well," Piccolo opened his bright white eyes and nodded with approval as he momentarily broke the telepathic link the two had shared during the meditation. He could still remember Dende growing up as a shy, but compassionate child on the planet Namek--Piccolo had never lived on Namek himself, but the memories of Nail, the Namek warrior and friend of Dende who had given up his own life to fuse with Piccolo, had long since become part of his own memories, and Piccolo felt the same warmth toward the young guardian that Nail had felt during his life.  
  
Piccolo also sympathized with Dende, remembering how hard he'd also had to struggle to learn the role of Kami, the sacred guardian of the planet. That had happened long after Kami had split himself into good and evil counterparts, and technically Piccolo, the offspring and rebirth of the evil that Kami had exorcised from his own being, had never experienced the same training that he now gave to Dende. But when Piccolo had finally rejoined with Kami three years ago, the goodness of Kami combining with the nobility of the once-evil Piccolo, to become a single being again, he had gained Kami's memories and feelings. He had, in a sense, become whole again, and now he was training Dende to fulfill the role, just as he, as Kami, had once been trained for this role.  
  
"We're almost done for the day," Piccolo reassured Dende as he closed his eyes once more, "now I want you to focus outward, away from the Earth. There's just as much danger among the stars as there is on the planet. Don't try to reach too far with your mind, just to the edge of this system..."  
  
"Piccolo," Dende suddenly asked nervously, "I can sense something out there...it's faint, but..."  
  
"No, it's not faint," Piccolo answered seriously, closing his eyes tight as he began to focus on the new presence emerging out of the shadows beyond the light of the sun, emerging from somewhere beyond the furthest planets of this star system, "it's just distant."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"I'm not sure," Piccolo admitted reluctantly, then he focused back on his psychic awareness of the alien ki hovering at the edge of his awareness, "I've never...I've never felt a power like this before..."  
  
"Are you sure," Dende asked skeptically, "we do have a lot of powerful fighters here on Earth."  
  
"No,' Piccolo replied, still focused on the seething, pulsing energy that he sensed, "I don't mean strength, at least not strength alone. This is different, it's vast. It's almost like," he paused, his closed eyes twitching anxiously, "like a living planet...no, like a living galaxy!"  
  
"Is that possible," Dende asked in surprise, his eyes opening wide for a moment before he quickly closed them again, "I guess it must be, I'm sensing exactly the same thing. But I can't tell if they're good or evil at all..."  
  
"It's neither," Piccolo answered, his deep voice lowered with confusion, "it's more like a storm or an earthquake, a force of nature. But whatever it is," he suddenly opened his eyes, his tone growing grimly serious, "it's coming straight for Earth."  
  
"What should we do," Dende asked quickly as his eyes flew back open, and he saw Piccolo walking toward the edge of the lookout and giving a quick glance down at the endless miles of forests, deserts and cities beneath them. Piccolo looked back at the young guardian over his left shoulder, his white cape fluttering against the constant high-altitude breeze and his white eyes narrowed slightly in deep thought.  
  
"I'm going to find Goku and the others," he answered quickly, "we'll figure out our next step from there."  
  
Without another word, Piccolo leaped over the rim of the lookout. His plummeting body suddenly swooped back up into the cloudless sky and he quickly flew toward the western horizon, his body enveloped by a cocoon of crystal-white ki that left a long streaking trail of light behind him. Piccolo clenched his fists as he raced through the air, the sharp green angles of his face tensed with determination, and he suddenly bolted away from the lookout in an explosion of white light, quickly vanishing into the deep blue sky. 


	5. Part 1: Arrival, Chapter 2: Encounter at...

Dragonball Z: The Borg Saga  
an original fan-fiction by Demon-Fighter Ash  
based on characters created by Akira Toriyama  
based on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek"  
  
  
Part 1: Arrival  
  
Chapter 2: Encounter at Capsule Corporation  
  
"Capsule Corporation, Bulma Briefs," Bulma answered quickly and wearily on the cordless telephone as she paced back and forth over the gray carpeted floor of the main computer lab, "no, we don't know what the object is...no, we don't think it's an asteroid or meteor...no, we don't think it'll hit the planet...no, we don't have any more information..."  
  
She looked back up across the dimly-lit room to her father, who stood in front of the large central computer's screen, muttering thoughtfully to himself as he pondered the flickering image. Strings of tiny numbers scrolled quickly up over a huge black image barely visible against the darkness of space. Bulma gave a quick glance to her husband, who stood a few feet away from the two of them, still dressed in his black bodysuit and now simply glaring at the image, his arms crossed over his chest. Vegeta had barely said a single word since the ship had entered orbit. He seemed even more sullen than usual, if that was possible; she didn't have time to ask him about it, though, and she doubted that he'd say anything anyway. If only, she thought wearily to herself, the reporters shared that sort of stoicism...  
  
"No, we're not hiding anything," she answered another question on the telephone, her voice rising with impatience and indignation, "no, we are NOT involved in a conspiracy with any aliens! Look, if you want answers, grab a telescope and find them yourself!"  
  
She quickly switched the phone off and took a deep breath. She'd spent the past hour doing little more than answering the telephone and making press statements for Capsule Corp, ever since the first amateur astronomers had discovered the ship.  
  
If it really was a ship, she thought, then she didn't want to think about how many people might be on it; the thing was huge, large enough to be seen from the ground, and most of the news broadcasts were filled with footage of the black angular shape hanging against the deep blue late-afternoon sky above the cities, the thing about half as large as the moon had once been. She couldn't really blame people for being scared, and she certainly understood them turning to Capsule Corporation for answers, but the truth was that she and Doctor Briefs barely knew anything more than the reporters.  
  
"These signals," her dad said with a gesture toward the numbers still rolling across the screen, barely seeming to notice the black cat crawling across the back of his neck from one shoulder to settle onto another, "seem to all be coming from that ship. I would say it's some kind of communication, but more complicated than any of our radio signals," he turned back from the screen toward Bulma, "they could be trying to send us a message."  
  
"I don't think so," she answered with a quick shake of her head as she walked toward the wall-mounted screen at the front of the room, "look at the power readings and the pattern of the signals. I think the signal that we're picking up is just the leftover energy of whatever it is they're broadcasting."  
  
"Could they be sending a message," Krillin volunteered, glancing up from the chalkboard on the back wall where he and Gohan had just finished a game of hangman and started playing another round of tic-tac-toe, "to some other planet?"  
  
"Maybe," Bulma replied with a shrug as she glanced backward at them, "it's hard to tell since we don't know what kind of signal they're using, but a lot of the transmissions seem to be looping right back into the ship. The whole thing's filled with these signals..."  
  
"They might be sending the messages to themselves," Gohan said quietly, his head tilted slightly. The young half-saiyan's voice wavered as he seemed to realize how silly the idea seemed, though Bulma had to admit to herself that she didn't have a better theory.  
  
"I guess," Krillin replied, running the palm of his right hand back across his bald head, and then rubbing his neck doubtfuly "but why would they need to do that?"  
  
"That was great," Goku mumbled cheerfully as he stepped out of the dining halls and back into the flourescent computer room, swallowing a large mouthful of food and wiping his lips with one hand before he peered curiously at the screen, "so who are these guys?"  
  
"I don't know," Bulma sighed with exasperation, shaking her head and looking back from the flat computer screen to Goku, "they arrived in orbit about ten minutes ago and they haven't sent any messages or done anything at all since then. We've even tried hooking up one of those old scouters to the computer to measure their power-levels, but the readings don't make any sense. One second it says they're totally off the scale, and the next, that the whole ship's just a few hundred thousand."  
  
"Yeah," Goku nodded seriously, "that's kinda like what I've been feeling too. It's almost like the whole thing's a living creature, sometimes. But then it feels like it's just filled with people, and then it seems like there's nothing up there at all..."  
  
"That's absurd," Vegeta suddenly barked, his eyes hardly leaving the screen except for one quick angry glance around at the rest of the group, "it's just a crowded ship, that's all! If they're really so strong, why haven't they even landed yet?!"  
  
"He's got a point," Krillin admitted, "why haven't they landed, or tried to contact us, or done anything," then he shook his head slightly, "but I can sense it too, and whatever's up there, it's a lot more complicated than just a crowded ship."  
  
"Is that the new arrival," a deep low voice, like the sound of distant, quiet thunder, asked from the door, and Bulma turned around to find Piccolo standing in the doorway, his towering form silhuetted black against the skylights of the gardens outside. The namek warrior stepped into the shadowy room and gave a long sideways glance at the large flat screen against the rear wall, at the black planet-like shape and the white numbers and lines of code flashing across the screen.  
  
"Hi Piccolo," Gohan called out cheerfully.  
  
"Hey Piccolo," Goku said with a friendly smile, then his innocent expression sank into a grim, thoughtful look, "I guess you've been sensing this thing too."  
  
"Hello Gohan," Piccolo nodded to the dark-haired youth with only the smallest hint of a smile, then looked back to his old rival, "this power's different from anything we've faced before. It's not just coming from one fighter, it's looming over this entire world. I woudn't be surprised if even the normal people who have never learned how to sense ki are being affected by all the energy pouring out of it."  
  
"I'm sure that could be affecting them," Bulma replied caustically, "or it just might be the sight of that big black shadow that flew in out of nowhere and parked itself in the sky! You know, it doesn't take sensing power-levels to know that there's something wierd going on..."  
  
Bulma froze in mid-sentence as a high-pitched whine suddenly filled the room. A razor-thin sheet of shimmering green light suddenly fired downward from the ceiling along the back wall and swept into the room. The thick wall of emerald light raced sideways into the laboratory, the beam passing straight down through the tables and chairs like a ghost as it swept through the room. The laser swung directly through her right shoulder and Bulma felt a cold wrenching sensation within her stomach, as though her blood had frozen into ice-water, as the beam passed through her chest and down through her feet.  
  
It suddenly emerged from her left shoulder and continued its sweep through the room, finally vanishing through the front wall like a phantom. She blinked her blue eyes with confusion, the icy sickness quickly fading away, and looked around to find all the others just as confused.  
  
"What was that," Goku cried out as he swept his hand back through his slightly-ruffled hair.  
  
"It passed through the whole room," Krillin remarked, rubbing his bald gleaming head with one hand as he tried to figure it out, "it felt like my whole body turned to ice for a minute..."  
  
"Was it some kind of weapon," Piccolo asked quickly, his slightly bent-over form quickly lifting back upright as he regained his composure. The rest of the fighters all looked at Bulma, except for Vegeta, who stared silently into the empty air, his fists clenched with rage and confusion.  
  
"I'm not sure," she shrugged helplessly, then glanced over her shoulder, "dad?"  
  
"I don't think so," Doctor Briefs replied thoughtfully as he continued to study the computer screen, and Bulma wondered whether he had even noticed the beam at all, "it left a trace of radiation across all of the West Capitol, but that seems to be mostly harmless. I think the ship activated and swept that beam through the city to scan it. Whoever's on that ship seems to have taken an interest in our city."  
  
A soft hum suddenly filled the air and everyone quickly whirled toward the back wall, toward the slate-gray lockers that house the lab's computer processors and servers. A spiral of green energy swept around a thick column of empty air, and the group stared as a translucent black shape materialized within the center of the energy beam. The shimmering helix faded away and Bulma found herself staring at a dark hulking alien creature now standing in the back of the room.  
  
* * *  
  
"Is it wearing some kind of armor," Krillin asked the others nervously as he stared at the thing.  
  
It looked vaguely human--it had two arms, two legs, and a head, at least--but its entire body was solid black, perhaps from some sort of skintight bodysuit. Black hoses and cords stretched across its torso and wound in and out of its skin, and Krillin winced to himself as he noticed a few gaps in the creature's chest, the openings filled with what looked like whirring clock-gears. The thing's left hand looked almost normal except for being the same black hue as the rest of its body, but its right arm ended in a kind of mechanical stump, with whirring cogs and clacking levers protruding from the appendage.  
  
Its face might have once been human-like, but now most of its head was covered in the same black material as its body; Krillin could see the round helmet-like covering gleaming in the flourescent lights of the lab and he realized that its body was covered from head to toe in some kind of black metal. Its left eye stared out at them from its corpse-white head, darting back and forth as though it were quickly scanning each of their faces. A bulky, roughly rounded machine seemed to be built into the right side of its skull, its right eye completely replaced by a flat plate of darkened glass, from which plastic-coated wires sprouted out along the right side of its head and trailed down in twisting cords into its neck.  
  
"I don't think so," Bulma said, her voice slightly gagged, "it looks more like a cyborg. But how did it get in here? There aren't any doors or windows over there, so it couldn't be super-speed."  
  
"Besides, the rest of us would've seen it or sensed it if it'd just been moving fast," Piccolo replied in a low voice, "it must be some kind of instant transmission."  
  
"Yeah," Goku nodded, stepping beside Krillin and Bulma to look at the creature, "but instant transmission doesn't usually look like that. It could be another move like it, though..."  
  
"YOU," a raspy voice suddenly screamed out behind the three, and Krillin looked back to find Vegeta glaring in rage at the creature. The cyborg didn't seem to even notice the saiyan's challenge, and instead turned silently around to look over the metal lockers of the computer servers.  
  
"I should have known it was you," Vegeta continued, his voice tinged with both hatred and a kind of sadistic, smirkng triumph, "hiding your power-levels, skulking about like rats! I knew you'd show up again one day, but this time you're not running away! You're going to stay and fight!"  
  
"Vegeta," Goku asked increduously, turning his head to look back at him, "do you know this guy?"  
  
"I've seen his kind before," Vegeta snarled in reply, then he raised his voice again, "what's the matter, robot?! You're afraid to face a saiyan?! Come on, answer me!"  
  
The creature hadn't even looked in Vegeta's direction, but instead simply finished studying the server cases and turned its gaze back to the large wall-mounted screen, a small mechanical whine rising from its neck as though its head were being twisted by tiny motors. It walked silently across the room, the heavy thud of its metal feet making the whole room shudder, and it stopped in front of the screen, its head turning left and right a little as it read the scrolling numbers on the screen.  
  
"Pathetic," Vegeta taunted, his face twisted into a cruel grin, his dark eyes focused on the silent creature, "all those circuits in your head and you're still nothing more than a walking toaster! Now tell me, robot, with all that plastic and metal...do you still bleed?!"  
  
"Vegeta," Piccolo suddenly interrupted, "that's enough! This one creature somehow has the full power of that entire ship within it! We don't want to start a fight unless we have to!"  
  
Krillin could sense it as well--all the energy that they'd felt coming from that thing in orbit now seemed to be in the same room as them, all of it pouring out of this robotic thing. Did the vast ki that all of them had felt coming from the ship belong to this one creature? Had it been alone in the moon-sized ship? If so, why in the world did it need such a gigantic ship in the first place?  
  
He quickly realized that he still felt the alien ship in orbit, as well as the almost-blinding level of power within it. Wahtever they had sensed in the ship was still there. Yet he felt the exact same power coming from the cyborg. It didn't make any sense, and there was only one experience he could compare to this bizarre double-ki that filled both the room and the sky: Tien and Piccolo's ability to split themselves into multiple forms, each of which seemed to have their distinctive energy.  
  
Was this thing just a extension of something else in the ship, like an arm or leg, the enormous ki within it coming from its connection to something else? That actually made the most sense, but the robotic intruder looked real enough, and it seemed to be a completely seperate person. If, Krillin thought to himself, "person" was the word to use for a cybernetic monster like this...  
  
The creature lifted its right appendage up to the corner of the computer monitor and a swarm of snaking wires quickly sprang out of its stump. The slender cables seemed to melt through the pale plastic casing and slither inward, and then the computer screen suddenly flashed white for an instant. Pages of text began to race across the screen, alternating with quick flashes of photographs and diagrams, and the cyborg stood silent, its arm connected to the monitor as it watched the flashing screen.  
  
"What is it doing," Gohan asked softly as he stared at the blurred flashes on the monitor, and the black metal creature standing motionless before the huge screen as it watched the screen.  
  
"I think," Bulma answered hesitantly, watching the screen, "I think it's plugged itself into Capsule Corporation's computers. It looks like it's reading every single file on our hard drives..."  
  
"Hmph," Vegeta snorted, and then he lifted up his gloved right hand, his thumb folded across his palm as he narrowed his eyes and took aim at the creature, "since everyone else thinks you have such a huge power-level, let's see how you handle a little welcome-to-Earth present! Big Bang!"  
  
"VEGETA," Goku cried out as a small orb of light, no bigger than a baseball, flew out from the saiyan prince's hand and hurtled toward the black cyborg. The orb slammed into the thing's back and sparks of white energy suddenly erupted from its chest, the circuits and motors within its body giving a loud wheezing hum as it suddenly collapsed limpy onto the floor like a ragdoll.  
  
"How pitiful," Vegeta mocked the lifeless creature, slowly lowering his raised hand, "even my toddler son could've handled a blast that weak! And to think you had the namek all worried!"  
  
Piccolo narrowed his eyes slightly with disapproval but said nothing, seeming instead to be lost in thought over what had happened. Goku, however, leaped directly in front of Vegeta, his dark eyes clouded with anger at the arrogant, and still smirking, saiyan prince.  
  
"How could you," Goku shouted, "you just killed an innocent person! He didn't do anything!"  
  
"Calm down, Kakkarot," Vegeta answered with a roll of his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest as his smirking triumph dropped into a sulk, "those things are NOT innocent!"  
  
"If you know something," Bulma snapped, "then you'd better start telling us..."  
  
A swirl of green energy suddenly appeared in front of the screen, a ribbon of dim light as tall and wide as a person, and the empty air within the helix shimmered as if it were underwater. A black shadow flickered within the pillar of energy. The translucent shape suddenly turned solid and the shaft of light faded away to leave a second cyborg, virtually identical to the fallen creature on the ground, standing in front of the startled group. It stared silently at them for a moment, its motors whining and humming with life, and then it suddenly turned back around to face the large computer screen.  
  
It lifted the bio-mechanical stump of its right arm to the corner of the monitor and a swarm of tangled silver wires quickly leaped out of its arm and quickly pierced the plastic case, plugging themselves directly into the computer. The screen suddenly flickered to life once more, countless files of streaming text and pictures flashing across the monitor. The images quickened into a constant blur, the symbols and images racing across the monitor faster than Krillin could possibly make out, whle the creature silently stared at the screen, seeming to read the files as quickly as they appeared.  
  
"So," Vegeta snarled as he lifted his right hand back up, "you're back for more! This time..."  
  
"That's enough Vegeta," Goku suddenly said, stepping directly between Vegeta and the second creature, "these things haven't done anything wrong, and I'm not going to let you attack them."  
  
"Fine," Vegeta glared over Goku's shoulder at the flashing screen, "have it your way, Kakkarot. We'll just sit here and wait around until THEY make the first move!"  
  
"What do you think it's doing," Krillin asked Bulma under his breath, while Goku and Vegeta continued to stare each other down, "why are they so interested in the computer?"  
  
"Capsule Corp has the largest database in the world," Bulma replied, "they're probably using it to learn about us. Remember, these are aliens. They probably don't know how to speak English or anything. I'll bet that green scanning beam was their way of locating the biggest computer."  
  
"So once that guy's finished reading the hard drive," Gohan asked, stepping beside Krillin as he watched the creature's dark silhuette against the kaleidoscope of pictures, words and equations filling the computer screen, "he might learn know how to speak our language and try to talk to us?"  
  
"Maybe," Piccolo answered softly, "but it's strange. The second creature doesn't seem to be concerned about the first one at all. It didn't check to see if the first one's alive and it doesn't even seem to be worried about Vegeta. Look at it, it's not even trying to protect itself."  
  
"It just picked up right where the first one left off," Krillin thought aloud, "but I don't get it. If the ship sent down a second alien to finish the job, they must have known that something happened to the first one. So why wouldn't it try to protect itself or try to find out what happened?"  
  
"Maybe they already know," Gohan shrugged.  
  
The blurred screen suddenly went black and the gleaming wires slithered back out of the hole that they'd melted through the bottom corner of the computer screen. The tangled wires disappeared into the creature's cybernetic arm once more and it quickly turned around, seeming to notice its dead comrade for the first time. The group of fighters watched, even Vegeta ceasing his arguments to turn his attention to the mechanical alien, as it bent down on one knee to look over the other creature's body.  
  
"Listen," Goku called out sheepishly, "I'm sorry about your friend. Vegeta just gets kinda carried away, but the rest of us are all really nice. If there's anything..."  
  
The second creature suddenly reached down with its left hand and grabbed the dead cyborg's metallic eyepiece, quickly disconnecting the bulky device and roughly yanking it up from the corpse's head. Goku's apology faded into bewildered silence as all of them watched: the creature reached further down, the eyepiece now pressed tight against its palm, and methodically unhooked several wires from the body's chest, then grabbed a small circuitboard between its fingers and yanked it out of the lifeless alien.  
  
The black cyborg lifted up from the body to stand upright. The transparent column of twisting green energy suddenly appeared around it once again, whipping around its metal body like a whirlwind. The creature quickly faded away like a ghost, and the glowing shaft of whirling green energy vanished. The body on the ground suddenly glowed green for an instant and then vanished, the metal exoskeleton and white chalky flesh disintegrating into a pile of gray ashes.  
  
The aliens had vanished, one disappearing into a column of energy, another turned to dust.  
  
"That was wierd," Goku finally said, shaking his head with confusion.  
  
"Do you think they're mad at us," Gohan asked.  
  
"I'm not sure it even noticed us," Krillin replied uncertainly.  
  
The screen suddenly flickered on again, this time showing a black background and a set of green numbers in the center. The numbers constantly changed, and, after all the confusion of the past few minutes, it took Krillin a second to realize that the numbers were a clock counting down...  
  
...0:15:29...0:15:28....0:15:27...0:15.26..0:15:25...  
  
"It's a countdown for fifteen minutes," Bulma said aloud, then she shook her head quickly to regain her composure, "did those things set our computers to count down?"  
  
"No, it's not our computer," Doctor Briefs suddenly remarked, and Krillin suddenly noticed him at the keyboard perched atop the large table in the middle of the room, "watch this."  
  
He typed a few words into the keyboard and the computer screen suddenly switched to an image of a news report. The newscaster sat behind a powder-blue desk, a small nervous-looking man with black hair and a thin dark moustache, as a "live" icon flashed at the bottom left corner of the screen.  
  
"We've just recieved word," the reporter said, "that the broadcast signal for CZN, the world's largest news channel, has been hijacked by the strange object now orbiting the Earth. The pirate signal seems to be showing a steady fifteen-minute countdown, and there appears to be no way to override or block the alien broadcast. We can only wait and see what will happen..."  
  
"So all the alien did was set our computer to switch to CZN," Bulma nodded, "but why are they broadcasting a countdown? Are they planning on attacking us...?"  
  
"I don't think so," Krillin answered doubtfully, "if they were going to attack us, why would they send us a fifteen-minute warning on global television?"  
  
"That's it," Piccolo exclaimed, and everyone turned from the screen to look at him, "practically everyone owns a television set, and everyone can pick up CZN. They must planning on sending a message to the whole world, and the countdown's meant to make sure everyone's watching."  
  
"It'll work," Doctor Briefs replied casually as the black cat on his shoulder mewed anxiously at the screen, "I can't imagine anyone who won't be watching to see what happens next."  
  
"Alright," Bulma said firmly, and she looked straight at Vegeta, "it looks like we have a few minutes to spare, so now you can start telling us how you know these creatures."  
  
* * *  
  
"I first saw them about fifteen years ago," Vegeta answered after a long, brooding silence, leaning back against the varnished table and closing his eyes as he remembered them, "when Raditz, Nappa and I still fought for Frieza. Frieza sent us to conquer any planet that he wanted to add to his empire, whether it was because of their technology, or some resource he wanted, or some strategic position.  
  
"We travelled in our pods for months between planets," Vegeta continued as everyone gradually began to pay attention to him, "and when we arrived we gave their leaders Frieza's terms for surrender. Most of the time they didn't believe us, so we'd use a few of their larger cities to show them what happens to those who refuse," he gave a small satisfied smirk at the memories of his conquests, "that usually did the trick, and if they still refused, it just meant all the more fun for us."  
  
"One time we were sent to the planet Tapuen, to enslave its scientists for Frieza's research and development teams. They'd invented some new spaceship that'd impressed him, or something like that. We spent five months journeying to their world and we emerged on Tapuen ready for battle, our blood boiling after so much time in the pods. But somebody beat us there..."  
  
"All the cities had been obliterated, scooped out of the ground like a giant claw had just grabbed them and pulled them off the planet. Every hint of technology had been stripped from the surface, the place was a desert. We didn't find a single living soul on the whole planet, and we didn't even find many bodies. But we did find a few bodies in some of the craters, where the cities used to be.  
  
"Them."  
  
Goku didn't need to ask who Vegeta meant by "them," not with the clenched hiss that he said it. The very thought of Vegeta travelling from world to world, killing so many people, made Goku a little sick, but, whether the proud saiyan prince admitted or not, he'd changed since then. He had originally come to destroy Earth, just like he had destroyed so many others, but had since become a father, married Bulma, even helped them in defending the Earth from Cell. Vegeta deserved a second chance as much as any villain and, despite his constant temper, Goku believed he had come a long way.  
  
"Those black metal exoskeletons, those hoses and wires, those white faces with one eye covered by those cameras or whatever they are, I could never forget them. There weren't many of them, maybe five or six on the whole planet, but we tracked down each and every one of them. The bodies were still fresh, we knew that it couldn't have been more than a few days since those things had left."  
  
"Wait a minute," Krillin interrupted, "why didn't you tell us about this when we saw their ship?"  
  
"Because I've never SEEN their ship, baldy," Vegeta snapped, and then he closed his eyes once more, trying to focus on his story, "we searched the star system for some sign of their vessel. It took our pods months to travel between stars, so we knew they had to be somewhere close. But we never found any trace of their ship. They must have been hiding from us, behind some moon or asteroid!"  
  
"Maybe," Bulma answered softly, her bright blue eyes crossed in deep thought, "or perhaps their ships use a different kind of propulsion, one that moves a lot faster than saiyan pods. If you arrived a few days after the attack, they might have already been long gone."  
  
"Impossible," Vegeta growled with a short glance to Bulma, though he seemed to hold himself back from saying anything more, instead continuing his story, "we finally had to give up and return to Frieza's ship, to tell him that those thieves had stolen the planet we were meant to conquer."  
  
"Frieza couldn't have been happy with that," Krillin said with a sly, faint smirk that Goku had seen countless times during their lifelong friendship. Krillin might not want to stand up to the saiyan prince, but he obviously liked the idea of Vegeta getting his comeuppance, even if by another villain.  
  
"That's the worst part," Vegeta suddenly shouted, apparently swept up in the emotions of that day fifteen years ago, "we should've gone back and searched out those rats wherever they were hiding, fought and proved ourselves against them. But the moment we told Frieza what we'd found on Tapuen, he forbid us to go back to that system. He called every single ship in that area back and closed that entire sector of space to everyone in his empire, without even explaining himself!"  
  
"It sounds like Frieza recognized them," Goku replied curiously.  
  
"Frieza was a coward," Vegeta barked, his eyes clouded with rage, "and he forced the rest of us to share in his cowardice! We should have hunted them down, challenged them for denying us the battle we'd earned, killed them like true saiyans...but Frieza forced us to turn our tails between our legs and run from that whole sector! The saiyan prince, forced to run from some dead robots in a crater!"  
  
"I don't know," Goku answered skeptically, "Frieza was a lot of things, but he wasn't really a coward."  
  
Goku remembered his battle with the interstellar tyrant on the dying planet Namek, a battle that had turned hopelessly against Frieza when Goku turned into a super-saiyan. Frieza had continued to fight, though, despite Goku's attempts to show him mercy. Even in the last moment, with his legs cut off and his body kept alive only by the energy Goku had given him, Frieza had chosen to launch a final, hopeless attack, choosing death in battle over the prospect of living with defeat.  
  
Frieza had been evil, sadistic, a cold-blooded monster with no remorse...but he was not a coward.  
  
"But if Frieza was afraid of these guys," Krillin said hopefully, "maybe they're on our side!"  
  
"Not necessarily," Piccolo replied grimly, "Frieza might've just been smart enough to stay out of their way."  
  
"I was afraid you'd say something like that," Krillin answered nervously.  
  
"Are you kidding," Vegeta scoffed, "they couldn't handle even the smallest attack! I could have killed one of those walking scrap metal heaps as a child!"  
  
"He might've known something about them that we don't know," Piccolo countered, "that ship has a single power-level unlike anything we've ever felt. That has to mean something."  
  
"Anybody else want some more tea or cookies or cupcakes," Mrs. Briefs suddenly asked as she walked into the lab, carrying a huge platter of cookies in both hands and setting them down on the table. Goku suddenly began grabbing handfuls of cookies and gulping them down.  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Goku mumbled through a mouthful of cookies, his stomach still rumbling a little even as he finished off the plate of cookies, "but could you bring a few more plates, and maybe a couple of glasses of milk, and some tea...and, oh yeah, some egg-rolls..."  
  
"It's almost done," Doctor Briefs called out from his chair in front of the screen, and everybody else turned around.  
  
0:00:05...0:00:04...:0:00:03...0:00:02...0:00:01...  
  
The screen suddenly switched to a view so surreal that it took Goku a few minutes to figure out what he was seeing. Steel girders and beams hung around the edges of the screen, along with platforms and catwalks filled with tiny people. He quickly realized that they weren't actually tiny, that they were just incredibly far away. Two sets of different levels of platforms and catwalks hung along the opposite sides of the screen, the distance between them probably miles. However, the center of the image was a huge white void, a pulsing glow of light that looked like the sun--except that, instead of a blinding glow, the light looked almost cold and empty. Was this, he wondered, what the inside of that ship looked like?  
  
"People of Earth," a voice suddenly boomed through the speakers. It wasn't a single voice at all, but a huge chorus of voices all speaking at the same time, in perfect sync with each other. It seemed to emerge from the light itself, the glow shuddering slightly with each syllable. It suddenly occured to Goku that everybody else in the world was watching this exact same image: people sitting in their living rooms, others gathered around the display TV sets stacked in store windows, or looking up at the giant screens built atop the skyscrapers, all of them listening to these voices coming from the ship.  
  
"We are the Borg," the echoing throng of voices all said in unison, "we have analyzed your offensive and defensive capabilities and found that your society will be unable to withstand us. If you attempt to resist us, you will be destroyed."  
  
The image suddenly flashed again and he found himself look at an anchorman's desk, where a middle-aged man and blonde-haired woman suddenly looked up in surprise, then swung their swivel-chairs back toward the television cameras and began to quickly talk to the audience.  
  
"This is CZN," the male announcer said, still fidgetting with his tie "and it seems that the pirate broadcast signal from the alien ship has ended. We're back on the air and..."  
  
"What does that mean," Krillin asked, rubbing the back of his neck, "what is 'the Borg'?"  
  
"Well," Bulma answered, "it's them, obviously! But what was up with that voice?"  
  
"They seemed to be speaking all at once," Goku suggested, "like a choir..."  
  
"Or perhaps their minds were thinking all at once," Piccolo said, "as a single mind."  
  
"Whatever it was," Vegeta growled impatiently, "they're obviously planning on attacking!"  
  
"Hey guys," Gohan called out nervously as he nodded toward the wall-mounted computer screen, "you'd better take a look at this..."  
  
Goku looked back at the television image and saw that it had changed again; the CZN logo was still at the bottom of the screen, along with the word "live image," but the camera now showed a large city, the buildings silent and the streets deserted. His heart suddenly wrenched as he saw a black metal figure step into the camera's view. The creature suddenly turned around to advance toward the camera and the image quickly switched to another view high above the city, where he could now make out swarms of black figures walking slowly about the streets, spreading out from the city square.  
  
"This is helicoptor footage," a newscaster's voice said, "over uptown South Capitol, where hordes of robotic creatures have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They're attacking anyone on the streets and have virtually taken control of the central city...the police have been completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of invaders and the federal government is reportedly worried about the consequences of trying to launch a military attack against the creatures in a populated urban area..."  
  
"So much for avoiding a fight," Goku sighed, then he closed his eyes for a second, focusing on the strange echoing ki of the "Borg" and finding a new source on Earth, in the South Capitol. He nodded to himself, then held out his right arm to the rest of the fighters.  
  
"We're going to South Capitol," he said quickly, "everybody who's coming, grab on."  
  
"Instant transmission," Krillin nodded with a smile as he grabbed Goku's forearm with one hand, "how did we ever manage to get by without it?"  
  
Gohan quickly grabbed onto Krillin's shoulder with his left hand and Piccolo took hold of Gohan's right elbow. Vegeta looked silently back and forth at the line of fighters and then, with a resigned sigh, walked to the back of the group and roughly grabbed the right side of Piccolo's cape in his fist.  
  
"I'm ready, dad," Gohan called out.  
  
"Let's go, Goku," Piccolo nodded.  
  
"How about you, Vegeta," Goku called out to the back of the group, "are you on?"  
  
"Just get it over with."  
  
"Okay," Goku answered, "everybody hold on tight!"  
  
"Good luck," Bulma waved with an encouraging, but slightly nervous, smile.  
  
"Thanks," Goku replied, and he lifted his right hand up to the middle of his forehead. He pressed his first two fingers to his temple and crossed his eyes for a moment, trying to sense the alien ki in South Capitol again--and then his image suddenly flickered and vanished. The four other fighters all quickly vanished alongside him, leaving Bulma and her father alone in the laboratory. 


End file.
